


I am here

by sorasan0000



Category: Akatsuki no Yona | Yona of the Dawn
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Gen, Male Friendship, Male-Female Friendship, OT3, Other, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-28
Updated: 2013-03-28
Packaged: 2017-12-06 19:39:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/739360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sorasan0000/pseuds/sorasan0000
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set one week after their departure from Awa when Yona started acting strangely detached again, Yoon wants to be an additional emotional support for both her and Hak.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I am here

**Author's Note:**

> If you haven't read past chapter 40, this contains spoilers.

“Yoon, what about this?”

“That’s grass.”

“…Grass? What?”

“Yeah, a type of long grass. Now, keep looking.”

Yona threw the grass from her hand and parted from the bushes she had found it in. The herb Yoon was looking for was supposed to look hard, long, and thin. They had both been searching for hours, and she was looking forward to going back to their campsite. In the end, she knew she should have expected it to take more time.

“Yoon, you were looking for some mushrooms, right?” After receiving a nod, Hak quickly pulled the few he found and put them in a side pack he brought along.

“Just make sure you pull them from the sti—” He paused when he saw Hak roughly pulling them from the gills. “Hey, hey, hey, stop that! Hold it!” Yoon yanked weeds and threw them in Hak’s direction, only for the wind to blow them back in his face. “Bleh, BFF…Pull them from the stipe! The stipe!”

“What’s the ‘stipe’?”

“Yoon, what about this?” Yona held her newest long, thin greenery discovery for Yoon to inspect.

Yoon’s face went from relief to disappointment in a matter of seconds. “This isn’t it, but it’ll be useful for flavor.” He grazed her hand and carefully took the plant and stored it in his bag. 

“Well then,” Yona continued, “let’s head back. They probably caught something for dinner hours ago.” She twirled around and began walking in the campsite’s direction. 

Yoon readied his bag and stood in silence at Yona, with Hak closely by her side. They were talking about something he couldn’t hear, about something that may have or may not have been any of his business. He knew he was thinking too deeply about it, but lately it had been eating away at him more than he wanted. Even though he was the first outsider to join them in their journey, he still felt just as equal to everyone else in terms of understanding them. 

He could still feel the quick, present sensation of his hand sliding against her’s. He could vividly remember the look of confusion on Hak’s face when he asked what a stipe was. These two people in his life where the very two he began his first journey with. 

He wished he could know what wounds they hid from everyone else. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It had been one week since their departure from Awa Port. Jae Ha, the now former pirate, was quickly settling into the atmosphere of the group. Yoon found he was good at finishing prey off quickly. From the scene he saw after returning to the campsite, he decided that perhaps Jae Ha was capable of doing that task a little too quickly. Yona was right when she said the others had probably been waiting for several hours. 

Yoon spotted Shin Ah and Kija sitting against the base of a tree, bobbing and nodding their heads. He wouldn’t blame them for being exhausted. It was almost time for the sun to be setting, and dinner wasn’t even made yet. 

“Alright everyone, let’s all get dinner prepared so we can all just go to bed. Got it?” Yoon took an authoritative posture and began ordering and pointing for tasks to be done. Get the fire started, set up the pot, cut the ginger, mincing the mushrooms, warming up the water, and gutting the fish for roasting were all enough for a simple and quick meal. 

Or so he thought. It took twenty extra minutes, with teaching Hak how to prepare the mushrooms. At first he considered it a bother, but seeing the all-rounded Thunder Beast of Kouka trip and get shaky over concentrating on cutting and mincing mushrooms correctly was fun to see. 

Seeing Yona do her best in starting fire amused him. She succeeded after four humorous attempts, and he was left in adding ingredients for their soup on the side as the fish were prepared. 

His earlier concern and curiosity still filled his mind as they ate. Yona and Hak had certainly been hurt in the past, but he could tell they tried to put it aside sometimes. When they first left Awa, he could see the pain resurface, and he felt powerless. While he wanted to ask them about it, he knew he couldn’t pry. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The soft whistling of Yona’s breathing was the first thing Yoon was aware of as he woke up from his night’s sleep. He stretched and peered from the tent, where he saw the others still sleeping outside. 

He heard Yona stir and carefully snuggled back under the covers. As he skipped over her calm, sleeping face, he could still see the cuts and bruises she received in the showdown with officers and henchman in Awa. Those damn excuses for human beings! He only wished he could have bruised them all back for what they did to them both.

An overwhelming feeling of regret filled him. Up until that point in Awa, he valued his life more than anyone else’s. He happily would have hidden behind Hak, Shin Ah, and even Yona. His experience in Awa taught him that he was capable of protecting others by putting his life in the line of fire. Even so, Yona still outdid him during that time, and it only started to hurt then. If a person as inexperienced as her could accomplish that, what did that make him? 

He couldn’t let it keep him down. He knew what he had to do to become better. He would protect her so long as he was still around. Until he could be the kind of person she could open her heart to, he would strive on.

He reached out his hand and softly rubbed her cheek and whispered, “Yona, it’s time to get up.”


End file.
